1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector assembly, and more particularly to a shielded electrical connector assembly for connecting two circuit boards.
2. Description of Related Art
A variety of electrical connector assemblies have been used to establish electrical connection between two separate circuit boards. The electrical connector assembly generally includes a plug connector mateable with a receptacle connector.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,697,799 discloses a receptacle connector mating with a plug connector comprising a housing, a plurality of contacts mounted in the housing and a shell surrounding the housing. Solder tails of outer rows of contacts extend outwardly of side walls of the housing and side walls of the shell for soldering to a circuit board. However, the contacts are not absolutely shielded by the shell, therefore, under high frequency operations, electromagnetic interference (EMI) may cause adverse influence to the signal transmission. To reduce the electromagnetic interference, U.S. Pat. No. 5,876,247 provides a shielded connector having a pair of substantially C-shaped metal shielding plates each having housing-engaging projections for elastically engaging with corresponding inside surfaces of the housing. However, since contacts and shielding plates of the shielded connector are inserted into holes of a circuit board and soldered therein in the direction vertical to the surface of the circuit board, but this type of shielding plate can not be applied to a surface mountable electrical connector requiring that soldering portions of the contacts should extend along the surface of the circuit board. Furthermore, a contact embossment is further provided on the shielding plate to cooperate with a corresponding housing-engaging projections to retain the shielding plate in the housing, thus making the shielding plate more complicated.
It is thus desired to provide a shielded electrical connector assembly to overcome the shortcomings described above.